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American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Posted by Amanda on March 30, 2009

American Gods is one of those books that people seem to be simply ga-ga for. I have never really even heard anything negative about this one. One of my friends heard that I was thinking about reading it and said that I had to read it as soon as possible and that it could save my life. I still don’t know what he meant by that one but clearly, this book has many admirers and I had very high expectations for it.

Unfortunately, this one just didn’t live up to the hype for me. I feel like every Gaiman fan is growling at me for saying this but I really didn’t think it was all that great.

The story is about a man named Shadow, which I still don’t get. I mean, can’t Gaiman at least give the guy a last name? Anyway, Shadow has just got out of prison and he is expecting to come home and be with the wonderful wife that he loves and work for one of his friends. Unfortunately, he leaves jail to find out that his wife and friend both died in a car accident, and now, he has neither wife nor job. Except that a strange guy named Wednesday has offered him a job as a sort of body guard as he begins to gather the old gods of America.

The idea was interesting and there were a few twists that certainly caught me off guard but I didn’t think it was that great. I mean, the writing was okay and some of the characters were cool, especially some of the modern incarnations of the old gods. Still, something about it was just really unenjoyable to me. I suppose part of that can be attributed to the oddity near the end. I just didn’t enjoy it for some reason. I wish I could explain it but sometimes, a book just isn’t your cup of tea.